1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal with camera, and in particular, to a portable terminal with camera which allows the focal length of the camera to be selectively converted into one of a plurality of lengths.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, portable terminals such as mobile telephones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have been popular. Some of these portable terminals are equipped with a digital camera to record captured images and/or to transmit captured images along with character and/or audio information.
It has been desired that the camera in the portable terminal not only captures an image of a distant object like ordinary cameras but also captures an image of the operator's (owner's) face or the like to record and/or to transmit captured images along with character and/or audio information. Accordingly, proposals have been made to allow for image-capturing in various directions.
For example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3074054 discloses an arrangement in which a plug type camera is inserted into a jack provided on a side of a mobile telephone and is rotated to vary an image-capturing direction. Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3085476 discloses another arrangement in which a close-up lens is connected to a camera of a mobile telephone to enable close-up image-capturing. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-185589 discloses still another arrangement in which a camera unit having a rotating mechanism is provided near an end of a mobile telephone to allow an image-capturing direction to be varied.
However, the conventional portable terminals with camera or the like do not deal properly with various focal lengths; with these portable terminals, it is not easy to switch between image-capturing of a distant object as with ordinary cameras and image-capturing of the operator's (owner's) face or the like. Specifically, when an image of the operator's (owner's) face or the like is captured, a wide-angle or close-up mode with a shorter focal length is desirably used. On the other hand, if an image of a distant object is captured as in the case with ordinary cameras, then in many cases, a standard or telephoto mode with a longer focal length is desirably used.
For example, the arrangement in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3074054 enables the image-capturing direction to be varied but fixes the focal length of a close-up lens. The arrangement in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3085476 has a close-up lens as a separate part. Accordingly, it is cumbersome to mount and remove the close-up lens, and the lens may be lost. The arrangement in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-185589 allows the image-capturing direction to be varied and serves to protect the lens, but fixes its focal length.
Although it has been desired that a portable terminal with camera allow various focal lengths to be used for image-capturing, the lens in the portable terminal with camera is often configured to have a single focal length; it does not have any movable parts so as not to degrade its durability or the like. Furthermore, if the focal length is varied, another lens as a separate part is required. Consequently, the above inconveniences may result.